Certarus enters Permian with flare capture, electric frac tech

Calgary-based Certarus Ltd. is bringing its virtual natural gas pipeline to West Texas shale country. The company announced plans to deploy a flare gas capture process used to power an electric hydraulic fracturing operation in the Delaware and Midland Basins with a multi-national American supermajor not yet disclosed. Earlier this year, Certarus also announced plans to provide services to a European-based supermajor operating in the Permian Basin.

Certarus has been operating a system that captures, compresses and reutilizes natural gas streams throughout Canada. Earlier this year, the company announced major projects with a Canadian-focused oil major for the use of the virtual natural gas pipeline.

“We are seeing an increasing trend within completions to use electric hydraulic fracturing as a means of reducing carbon emissions and achieving cost savings. Certarus operates the largest bulk CNG fleet in North America and is well positioned to benefit from this trend,” said Nathan Ough, vice president of Certarus. “By sourcing CNG through flare gas capture, Certarus provides industry with even more options to reduce carbon emissions.”

Through the agreement with the operator, Certarus will displace roughly 5.5 million gallons of diesel fuel with CNG during the term of the agreement. The operator has the option of displacing up to 37.8 million gallons of diesel.

This year, several shale operators have committed to the use of some kind of electric-powered frac fleets, including XTO, Diamondback, Shell, EOG Resources, Devon, CNX Resources and Apache Corp.